Keith Urban with Waylon's Guitar. Yes that one!

[Casey_WGDJ]

The story I heard, is that the first one Waylon had the tooled body cover done on was a '68 Sunbust maple neck tele. That's the one with the white pickgaurd, it's also the one he used the most, and when he moved back to Arizona in '99 it's the only one he kept, so Shooter has that one now.
He had two others, with the tooled body cover. One was a '53 blackgaurd, and the other was a 1950 Broadcaster. He sold those in '99 when he sold his house, and most of his other stuff, in Nashville.
The '50 Broadcaster sold at a Christie's auction in 2009, for $98,500, and I think that is the one that Urban has, and I'm pretty sure the Country Music Hall Of Fame ended up with the '53.

"THE" Tele, known as #1, is actually a '53, not a '68. It was given to Waylon in '63 or '64 by The Waylors. It's in the possession of his family.

The Keith Urban Tele (#2) was Waylon's main backup to his #1 for many years. He would regularly swap guitars halfway through a show. He'd typically start with #1 and switch to #2.

He had a bunch of leather covered Teles. In the '70s he started using some as backups that had a similar yet noticeably different leather pattern. You can see one of these in the intro to The Dukes Of Hazzard, as well as on the late '70s RCA reissues of Waylon's pre-outlaw albums that were given new covers.

In the early '90s the Fender Custom Shop made him several replicas of his #1. The leather pattern matched #1 much more closely than the '70s guitars. He played them a bit, probably most notably on the short "Waylon and Friends" TV series, and by 1995/96 he was mostly playing the Fender Waylon Jennings Tribute Telecasters, albeit slightly modded to his specifications (weirdly, Fender didn't use the type of Scruggs tuner that he liked). #1 was brought back for his final two years of touring with the Waymore Blues Band, and during this time he used a Tribute Tele as a backup, although as he was reduced to light strumming, I doubt he ever had a need to switch guitars on stage.

Basically, though, for the vast majority of his career, Waylon played #1. If you see a Tele with a white pickguard and a "normal" looking leather pattern in his hands, it's most likely #1.

(FWIW, I actually prefer #2! I think the black pickguard makes the guitar look pretty badass!)

As a sidenote, I have a bunch of Waylon lessons on Youtube. Here's a link: Waylon Guitar Lessons

I had to use TinyURL because my Youtube username is censored here, LOL. I guess that makes me an outlaw of sorts...

 

[SamClemons]

I thought Marty's singing, playing, and sound of his rig were all better than Kieth's. What is the square patch on Marty's tele.

 

[tweedtone]

Very cool!
I got to see Marty & band a couple of months ago live for the first time. I was grinning ear-to-ear the whole show. Astonishing playing from all, great songs and the kind of pro polished showmanship I love. Oh and just the finest stagewear.
I've seen Keith live as well and that guy can seriously play and his band is exceptional as well.

 

[WaylonFan76]

That Keith Urban and Marty video just makes me sad. In my head Waylon's still with us and playing that Tele somewhere.

 

[SamClemons]

I got interested in Marty's guitar. Quite a history and a lot has been written about it.

How did you get Clarence White's Tele?

His wife Susie was a friend of mine. She told me she was interested in selling some guitars. I went to Kentucky where she lived at the time. She had this '54 Strat. I asked her if I could see the B-string guitar and she looked at me and said, "I know that's what you came up here to see." She flipped the lid on this case and there it was. It hadn't been aired out in about seven years and a couple strings were missing. I got a chill. That was the guitar that I listened to on countless records. At the end of the day, I asked her, "What do you want to sell?" She asked "What do you want, the B-string guitar?" I said, "Yeah!" She sold me that and the '54 Strat. I don't feel like I bought the guitar. I just bought the rights to borrow it.

That guitar has a following. Any time a guitar player comes around who's a fan of Clarence, I'll hand it to him. Fender is making this new Clarence White model. I took the guitar out to Fred Stuart at the factory and he ran specs on it all afternoon. The secret to that guitar is in the wood and metal. It happens to be a good one to begin with. The magic's in that back pickup that Red Rhodes wound to the bajillions. I hope it never goes out.

You can lay into that guitar and it rocks and rolls, or you can play clean chicken pickin' stuff. That B-string bender does its own thing. The middle setting is that Strat thing. Clarence played that setting on "Tulsa Country" and some Wynn Stewart songs. The front pickup is a butchered-up Strat pickup that has that fat, full, B.B. King warmth. That guitar is an all-round Tele. It's perfect.

 

[SamClemons]

Reckon Waylon Jennings and Clarance White ever got together with those two guitars...